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I received this week from flyingpigs24 for my people w/ crowns theme, artist choice/objects w/ legs theme, and my artist's choice theme (and she sent me an extra, too!)

tada! Aren't the wonderful? The top right one is written in a shiny pen, so it didn't scan very well but it says: "worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles but empties today of its strength". Thanks flyingpigs24! They are so wonderful!

I was honored to be chosen to particpate as a Master Craftster for Elmer's. One of the projects I did was zentangle up some high heels using Elmer's Painters paint pens. They were so much to make, that I just had to make more!

Here are a pair of flats that I made for my sister-in-law for her birthday.

And these are the shoes I made for cackle! She sent me over some shoes, and I sent them back all zentangled up!

And, just in case you are curious, some progress shots of the first shoes!

I joined the Wicked Forest Altered Matchbox swap and got the ever fabulous Noooitaremybirthday as my partner. Being just incredibly excited about having an awesome partner, I started on her package right away. Its my first altered matchbox, and I had a lot of fun making it (fun with a side of achy finger tips and glue all over my hands)!

Nooo's forest ended up being more enchanted than wicked. I chose colors that were more suited to Nooo's sunny personality, as well as personal tastes. The tree is made of wire and seed beads. I found the tutorial for making these trees here: http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/wire-treeIt was a uber helpful tutorial, since I don't have much experience in wire work. I just love the form the tree took!

For the most part, I used a 28 gauge pewter color wire, and also mixed in some 30 gauge shiny silver strands as well for a little dimension. My seed beads were all sorts of sizes. The pink ones were rather large, so I only used one bead, three for the orange since they were so small, and two for the green.

Here's the backside of the tree.

I started by painting the matchbox a lime green, then hot glued on some real moss. Its super spongy and soft! I used my trusty Elmer's pen around the edge. The knob is a pony bead with a crystal glued on. I used a super strong glue to adhere the pony bead to the box.

Here's a glimpse underneath. I used a metal glue and clamps to glue the roots down. The glue I used was horrid and took forever to dry and also made some of the clamp glue on, as well (hence why there are little green parts on the bottom). If I could go back and change anything, it would be the glue I used, which was a metal glue for jewelry making. Though it took forever to dry on the metal, it would dry instantly on skin, like super glue. I got a lot of it on me, of course. ^_^ It has eyelets as feet and says all the swap details on the bottom.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of inside the box, because I got too excited to send it off. But the drawer is painted the same lime green with pink edging. I used a wood-looking piece of paper to line the bottom of the drawer. The drawer held Little Red's riding hood made out felt (fits great on my finger!), Snow White's poisoned apple, a little wolf charm, an owl charm, and some little fake leaves.

Thanks for looking!

And a quote from suereal, because I love it so much:

Quote

And OMG! Your wire tree match box is so mesmerizing. At first I was like "Oh so pretty!' Then I stared at it for a bit. And I thought of a bit of a story about it....This beautiful encrusted tree is the result of an alchemists experiments. But he didn't realize that he was trapping the spirit of the tree when he sought to turn wood to metal. When the tree's leaves turned to gems, it begane to see a bit of a reflection of what is happening around it, but it can not grow any more. Hows that for wicked?

I'm still behind on sharing pictures, but I finally got some uploaded so that I can make some separate posts. Incoming! Zentangled Shoes!

These ones I made in March for my SIL for her birthday.

And these were for cackle for a personal swap. She sent me over some shoes and I sent 'em back all zentangled up! In exchange she made me an altered tin (its in the personal swap gallery in you are interested in seeing it). Both shoes were made with Elmer's painter paint pens. Oh, can you see the little "L" on the heel on the closest shoe? That's for cackle's real name. ^_^

And Noooitaremybirthday has received her package for the Wicked Forest Altered Matchbox swap, so here it is!

I sadly didn't get a picture of the drawer, because I've apparently lost my mind. Inside the box has a cape for little red riding hood (which I enjoyed wearing on my finger), Snow White's poisoned apple, a wolf charm, and owl charm, and some little fake leaves. All items that can be found in Nooo's enchanted forest!

I painted some Kiss shoes for my dad for his birthday last year. My little sister loved them, and knew she wanted painted shoes of some variety with the same style of shoe (I ones I bought for her were plain black Vans). She was very unhelpful on what she wanted though, hehe, except she knew she wanted them to be black and white. So, I went the floral direction. I found some flower designs online and used them for my inspiration.

I used Elmer's Painters paint pen (the white fine tip one) to draw on the designs. It took a few layers to get the lines bright enough, and the pens really didn't like the canvas that much, but it worked out in the end. The pens are permanent, so I didn't bother trying to seal them up on anything.

My partner, teachart, in the IYP20 swap requested stenciled t-shirts. If anything, I can do stenciled shirts! hehe! So here are the two that I made for her! (Both are done using the freezer paper stenciling method using fabric paint and dabbed on with a sponge)

A fancy hamster! As a proper gentleman, he is equipped with a top hat, bow tie, and cane. He also has a love of fine cigars.

And an antlered variety of kitty. Its a shy kitty, see him peeking his head up from the bottom? Unlike deer antlers, kitty antlers are hollow and much lighter in weight. ^_^

Both crazy designs were based off of themes that teachart gave me. She had some awesome themes, can't you tell? hehe